Pompey: Leadership-strategy-conflict [Anglais] [Broché]

In my humble opinion Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus was a self-promoting, opportunistic, glory stealer, glory-seeker, vicious warlord. With the extra treat characteristics of being a liar, promising to be merciful and always executing the poor fools that believed in him (hence his nickname "butcher-boy"). And that's why you shouldn't read a biography of this man written by me.

Nic Fields knows all the above facts; they aren't just propaganda from Pompeius opponents. But he manages to put them in context, explaining superbly each situation, Pompeius psychology and his quest for greatness - a Roman Alexander!

As a general he was superb. Master of logistics and grand strategy, he was somewhat less able tactically then some contemporary generals like Caesar or Sertorius. In this book you will find the career of this military genius from the beginnings (I was thinking to write "humble beginnings", but Pompeius was never humble) during the Socii (social/war of the allies) wars to his defeat at Pharsalus and his cowardly assassination in Egypt. You will also find Pompeius victories during the Pirate campaign, the siege of Jerusalem (against the Saducees) and the war against Mithridates, they weren't forgotten in this small book.

His capabilities as a leader are well addressed, and his political and military reasoning are analyzed with some care.

You will also get good color plates by Peter Dennis, including the first triumph of Pompeius; a boarding action against the pirates and the battle of Pharsalus. Maps illustrate competently the strategic moves in several campaigns.

Fields doesn't forget that the greatness of a General depends also on who he fought. So he gives a short biography on two of Pompeius greatest foes: Sertorius and Mithridates. As a previous reviewer remarked, Fields should had left a page for Julius Caesar (the reader of this book can't be forced to buy the Caesar book!).

Fields focused on the leadership and military aspects of Pompeius. Just as he should; this "Command" series focus on the military achievements of great military man, so this isn't a proper biography. But as a military biography of this great general, you will be hard pressed to find a better work.

good stock, slim volume, tersely written, perfectly researched, extremely enlightening. prompted purchase of two more volumes on Julius Caesar and Roman Battle Strategies.

Nic Field wrote a pretty good book covering the life and career of Pompey the Great. He manage to gathered all the sources on Pompey and put them in a nice readable book that does justice to Pompey's life and career. Although his title was a work of a sarcastic dictator, Pompey in many ways, was a great Roman commander. Often, many people see Pompey from the HBO series, ROME and they see an old fat guy running like a scared rabbit from Caesar. But this book shows that Pompey was a force to be reckoned with and he had a pretty long and successful career before meeting an inglorious end.

As much as the book is well written and researched, I did take away a star because the author left out Julius Caesar. In this book, he told the readers to buy his book he has written on Julius Caesar for Osprey Command series. I supposed that is one way to save space but since I am reading Pompey's mini-biography, I would like to see how Caesar looked from Pompey's perceptive, not Caesar's as the author wants us to. So I wanted more on Caesar vs Pompey and I don't want to buy an extra book on Caesar, whose biographies are many while there is none on Pompey until now. Adrian Goldworthy's biography and others like it does not encourage me to buy a mini-biography on Caesar. So the star is loss and that is my reason.

But overall, if you are well read on Caesar, then this book will filled you in on Pompey's exploits. When Sulla coined him "the great", he meant it as a mock but Pompey, by this book, certainly earn that title in more ways then one. Of course, Pompey lost to Caesar and Caesar's name was used for next two thousand years to implied "ruler". I guess we all know who came out ahead.